Balaans

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Balaans was a two-player card game that lent itself to gambling. Around 18 BBY, balaans was played by the patrons of a cantina on the planet Lau. The disguised clone Omega partook to the game, gambling in hopes of earning herself quick credits and fleeing the planet along with her lurca hound Batcher and fellow clone Crosshair.

Cards[]

A balaans deck had 30 cards in total.^[2] The deck consisted of five blue and five red cards,^[3] as well as ten "spell" cards,^[2] consisting of two "destroy," two "deflect," two "buff," two "steal," and four "block" cards.^[3] The spell cards had their own symbol in the top corner of the card, as well as the card name in Aurebesh text. The spell cards also featured various artwork.^[2]

Gameplay[]

Balaans was a two-player game, with each player having their own draw pile that would be dealt to them and which they would draw from. Each player maintained a hand of several cards and laid out cards in five face-up stacks. Players won by having the winning hand face down and revealed.^[1] The Three Eastern Stars was a nearly unbeatable hand.^[3]

History[]

Around 18 BBY,^[4] while on the run from the Galactic Empire on the planet Lau, the clones Omega and Crosshair, along with their lurca hound Batcher, entered a cantina with the hopes of earning enough credits to bribe a ticketing agent for passage offworld. To secure funds, Omega played balaans against a Trandoshan, winning several hands against them. When the local Imperial officer, Mann, faced off against Omega, he was overconfident in his chances until Omega laid down the Three Eastern Stars, taking twenty thousand credits off of him.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

"The card game came out of several conversations and Andre Kirk, our art director, and one of his designers helped build a real card game with real rules. We play-tested it. It's pretty fun. It's actually really cool. It's kind of like a combination of Uno and Magic the Gathering."

―Brad Rau^[5]

Balaans was a game designed for "A Different Approach," the fourth episode of the third season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch.^[1] The production team designed a complete rule set for the game,^[6] with supervising director Brad Rau describing the game as a cross between Uno and Magic: The Gathering^[5] and even play-tested several rounds of it.^[6]